Marketplace: Manage diabetes with KeyVive.com

David Greenholtz’s father died from complications of diabetes at age 54. Little management of the disease was undertaken, and that’s really the key to good health, Greenholtz said.

He, and especially his wife, Aimee, are experts at diabetes management because Aimee was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in her 20s.

They know how hard it is to get good information to make wise decisions. They’re also aware of how many Americans are undiagnosed sufferers of the disease.

The two launched a website company last November called KeyVive.com to provide health-care technology and a social media platform for people with diabetes.

David has run multiple businesses over the past 20 years, many in the financial services industry. Aimee is a public-relations professional and the two also produce Kids Rock the World diabetes camp for kids.

KeyVive.com has been a few years in the making and is currently like an interactive newsletter providing valuable information to people with diabetes, David Greenholtz explained.

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In the future, the site will provide several services, but it currently is a social media platform with staff writers producing regular stories and published interviews drawn from a host of topics, he said.

There are two primary goals, Greenholtz explained. The first is to encourage diabetes testing. KeyVive.com has partnered with a group that will send kits to people so they can test themselves. Hopefully people will see an article online produced by KeyVive.com, be prompted to take action and then order a kit, he said.

The second goal is to provide people with the disease useful information about management and allow them to post questions or comments about their successes and struggles.

On his site, Greenholtz says he lost 50 pounds through an effective exercise and nutrition program. Taking control of one’s health is essential and KeyVive.com aims to assist with that, he said.

"Our focus on the site is to help people take little steps toward radical changes in their life," Greenholtz explained.

But these goals are only "the tip of the iceberg," he added. The company recently hired Gary Long, co-founder of Strategic Business Systems and part-time Park City resident, to help raise private funding to expand the site’s offerings.

Because physicians have limited time to spend with patients, they assign a diabetes educator to help the person self-manage their disease, he said. Greenholtz would like KeyVive.com to become the platform used by individuals for that communicating. Many useful tools are already present on the side, and its technology could help a person and their educator track progress.

"Part of the plan is to bring in a network of support," he added.

For example, KeyVive.com has an extensive food database allowing users to look up an item’s nutritional content and see if it would be good for their diet.

All of these services are free to the user. Greenholtz plans to make profits from insurance reimbursements for aiding people in staying healthy. KeyVive.com will also soon introduce a retail section.

Many people think diabetics have to eat sugar-free foods. That comes from bad information since sugar-free foods often have more carbohydrates and fat, which is just as harmful, he said. It’s more important to be in good health than to simply follow a list of foods you can or cannot eat, Greenholtz explained.